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\ (IF WEALTH. 



A niMoi km;. 

Delivered before the Broome County Polytechnic Association, 
Binghamton, N. Y., June 26, 1872. 

BY 

DAVID E. CRONIN, 

COUNSELOR AT LAW. -EDITOR OF THE BINGHAMTON TIMES. 



DEDICATED TO THE 



International Workingmen's Association. 



" Science may be called an extension of the perceptions by means of 

reasoning." — Herbert Spencer. 
•'Science is trained and organised common sense." — Prof. Huxley. 



100,000 COPIES 

TO BE 

GRATUITOUSLY CIRCULATED. 



BINGHAMTON, N. Y., 
PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE BINGHAMTON TIMES. 



1874. 






Gift. 

la. BiKtemakar 
7 S '06 



THE REFORMS WHICH SHOULD PRECEDE, 



AND THE 



Hbsults Which Must Follow the Equal Distribu- 
tion of Wealth. 



A PLAN IN NATURE — COMPULSORY EDUCATION — PRISON 

REFORM — DISTRIBUTION THROUGH CO-OPERATION 

— CIVIL MARRIAGE. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

The foundation of the argument which I desire to im- 
press upon you this evening, will be plainly understood 
without elaboration, by those of you who are familiar with 
the results of recent scientific' research and who have kept 
careful step with the advanced philosophic thought of our 
day. For you have discarded the old notion that this 
world was created by a special act of- the Almighty and 
its affairs regulated by special interposition of the same 
Infinite Power, and you have accepted as a fact the exist- 
ence of the law of Evolution or Universal Progress, as 
expounded most ably and fully by Herbert Spencer, and 
as explained indifferent departments of Science by Dar- 
win, Lubbock, Huxley, Lecky, Tyndall and many others. 
You regard the existence of this 'law as not less surely 
demonstrated than that of the law of gravitation. 

But there may be present some who have had neither 
the time nor the opportunity to "examine the results of 
investigations conducted in accordance with the strictest 
methods of reasoning, by men who have practically adopt- 
ed the famous maxim of Descartes — "Give unqualified 
assent to no propositions but those the truth of which is 
so clear and distinct that they cannot be doubted." 



I will therefore briefly allude to a few of the most im- 
portant of recently discovered scientific truths. Other- 
wise I shall be charged by the uninformed, the ill-informed 
and prejudiced of basing my discourse upon bold and un- 
tenable assumptions. 

Among the truths which modern science has establish- 
ed is — the vast antiquity of earth and man. The asser- 
tion of tradition that the Universe was created but a few 
thousan^ years ago, has been completely refuted by ascer- 
tained facts. As calculated from the growth of coral 
reefs, it is as certain, as the conclusions of combined 
Agassiz and arithmetic, that the earth has existed hun- 
dreds of thousands of years; and as deduced from the 
palpable evidences found in the earth's crust, trie most 
eminent geologists agree that the globe has existed mil- 
lions of years. 

How difficult it is for the mind to grasp a few hundred 
years, or indeed to go much beyond the period of the 
average duration of individual life. How much more dif- 
ficult, nay, how impossible, to comprehend an expanse of 
time receding away into millions of years ! The period 
of our life's duration is, indeed, everything to us, but as 
compared with the far, far extending past, it is as nothing ; 
and it is essential to the force of my argument that this 
should, to some extent, be emphasized. In our own coun- 
try, especially, it requires an extra effort even to partially 
comprehend the enormous age of the earth and its inhab- 
itants. We live in a land but latel} r occupied by civilized 
beings, surrounded by objects suggestive of recent settle- 
ment. A building which has stood a hundred and fifty 
years is a curiosity. Society, in fact is scarcely organized 
in the newer portions of our country ; the American race 
itself is a new and distinct variety of the human species. 

You may go to the old world and dwell in homes still 
not only inhabitable but comfortable, which were built l?e- 
.fore Columbus sailed on his first voyage of -discovery ; 



yon will find around you, churches, castles, monasteries, 
and monuments which were considered old before the 
great navigator was born. But there, these are ordinary 
and familiar memorials of past ages, to which the inhab- 
itants feel themselves connected through numberless pre- 
vious generations. While here there are so few objects 
remindful of antiquity that we seem entirely separated 
from the remote past. In the eastern hemisphere are 
found very extensive and conspicuous remains of races 
. which in all probability lived long anterior to the date 
which popular chronology assigns to the creation ot Adam. 
In order, however, to entertain for a moment, even an ap- 
proximate idea of the age ol the earth, it would be neces- 
sary to comprehend a period, compared with which the time 
that has elapsed since the building of the Egyptian pyra- 
mids or the foundation of the Assyrian empire is but an 
hour. 

Moreover, modern science tells, us that during all this 
vast period, Evolution — the law which governs the devel- 
opment of Force — has been in constant operation — is still 
operating. The intelligent and unprejudiced person who 
reads' the Nebular Hypothesis, as promulgated by La Place, 
and Herbert Spencer's essay thereupon, feels convinced 
that the solar system, and as a part thereof — our own 
Earth — was created by and through the agency of the fixed 
law of Evolution. The same law presided over the de- 
velopment of the physical globe after it became an indi- 
vidual body ; it governed the growth of life upon its sur- 
face ; it regulated the progress made in Society, in Gov- 
ernment, in Manufactures, Commerce, Language, Litera- 
ture, Science, and Art. With a knowledge of this law, 
we can interpret the obscure and detect the untruthful 
narrations of history so far as to be able to affirm that 
the total human population of the earth has constantly 
increased ; that the average duration of human life is 
• greater than ever ; that wealth has been largely multiplied 



and unceasingly diffused ; that there has been perpetual 
accumulation of knowledge, and as a consequence, a more 
extended political and social freedom, and above all, a con- 
tinued diminution of human suffering. In short, the his- 
tory of human experience amended and rendered intelli- 
gible by a knowledge of this law, demonstrates that what 
has been denounced as dangerous and seductive Optim- 
ism — is truth ; and conversely, that which has been owl- 
ishly regarded as wise and profound Pessimism — is Error. 

Nothing logically reconciles free human reason to its 
own being, to the plan of the universe, to the eternal jus- 
tice and beneficence of the Supreme Intelligence which 
we name God, but a knowledge of the existence of"this all- 
pervading law of Evolution. Before its discovery there 
was no 'rational or consistent theory of creation ; no prem- 
ises upon which to base general and hopeful predictions 
of the future ; all was apparent stagnation, malevolence, 
darkness. 

How many learned people are still unaware that the 
world moves ! Mr. Spencer gives a striking illustration of 
their conceptions of the universe, and I cannot do better 
than give you the substance of it. Suppose one of the in- 
sect species known as ephemera, which lives but the frac- 
tion of an hour, were to be born, gifted with intelligence, 
and die in this room. During its brief life, it would be 
under the impression that the world was a dimly-lighted 
hall ; that the people in it were quiet and peaceable ; that 
the windows always remained closed ; that the lights never 
went out, and that orriy one man stood upright and talked. 
Such is the impression many people have of the phenome- 
na of the universe. It it only after the events of many 
successive generations are reviewed, that we are made 
fully aware that the world is constantly moving and im- 
proving. It never moves backward, however much it 
may seem to do so, and as " every cause produces more 
than one effect, and often a multiplicity of effects," so 



progress is sometimes so rapid as to astonish and over- 
whelm the most devout believer in its power. 

At the beginning of this century, the man who would 
have predicted even a few of the most important changes 
which in seventy years have resulted from the invention 
and improvement of the steam engine, and the discovery 
of some of the properties of electricity, would have been 
sneered at as madly visionary. So also / in August, 1861, 
would have been regarded the person who ventured to 
predict that the extinction of African slavery on this 
Continent would surely follow, within a few years, the de- 
feat of the Union army at Manassas. Who would have 
believed in the midsummer of 1870, that as the result .of 
the war between France and Germany, within eighteen 
months, the Pope would be deprived of temporal power, 
Louis Napoleon dethroned, free schools established in 
Italy, and compulsory education contemplated in France? 

The average civilized man, whose stupidity would be 
contemptible if it were not pitiable, when asked if he ac- 
cepts as true the scientific discoveries to which I have ad- 
verted, instantly answers, No ! When questioned if he 
has ever made an effort to ascertain their truth or falsity, 
he as promptly replies in the negative, and may add that 
he has not the remotest intention of so doing. There is a 
more learned, but not less willfully obtuse class, whose 
reason, like plaster, has set and stiffened around the mould 
of some favorite dogma, who remain unaware that benefi- 
cence underlies the plan of creation. A still wiser class, 
but with minds equally inflexible, are the specialists in 
science who hopelessly declare that there is no visible or 
comprehensible plan in the processes of Nature. But for- 
tunately there is a large number of people who are ready 
to welcome and adopt, if found true, the conclusions of 
free and rational thought upon every subject, and it is to 
the consideration of this class that I submit a few clear and 
distinct propositions. 



There are orgauisms so low in the natural grade that 
it is a question whether they belong to the animal or 
vegetable world, and all the evidence so far adduced ren- 
ders it in the highest degree probable, according to Mr, 
Darwin, that from some such intermediate production (as 
these low organisms) both animals and plants have been 
developed. The genii inal vesicle is the same in all or- 
ganic beings, and both plants and animals are composed 
of the same chemical elements. The essential difference 
between them is, that animals being detached from the 
soil, and gifted with powers of movement, controlled by a 
brain, possess, in proportion to their powers of movement, 
a free ivill. 

And .the animal, Man, who has the most varied powers 
Of movement, and the highest development of brain, pos- 
sesses the freest will. But he is surrounded by the fixed 
and immutable laws of Nature, which if he violate, 'either 
willfully or ignorantly,- he must suffer a penalty. It is 
possible for a man to deliberately and understandingly vio- 
late these laws, but in almost every instance his ignorance 
is* the cause of their violation. Therefore, it may be laid 
down as a general rule, that "our suffering is caused by 
our ignorance." To prevent suffering we must learn these 
laws' and obey them. How else can we enjoy the exercise 
of this supremest endowment — a free ivill? 

Beneficence, then, underlies the plan of Creation, because 
where we discover suffering we may invariably trace its 
cause to our own willfulness or ignorance. Having a free 
will, and the power to remove ignorance, our suffering is 
a wrong inflicted by ourselves. To vary a time-honored 
legal maxim, we may rightfully declare that a general 
principle in the all-including equity of nature is — "where 
there is a wrong there is a remedy." 

And nature is constantly remedying wrongs, through 
man, without his conscious agency; which shows that 
she is working ou£ti plan entirely independent of his con- 



currence. Man may aid this plan, and lie may retard it, 
but he cannot permanently obstruct or control it any more 
than he can permanently stop the descent. of a river by 
obstructing its regular channel. Is it not, then, the part of 
prudence to gain some knowledge of this plan, and instead 
of trying to shape the world according to our whims, con- 
ceits, or prejudices, to consciously assist this most wise, 
loving, and Divine Nature? 

To those who will not examine the newly- discovered 
facts of science, but are governed by the necessarily spec- 
ulative ideas of the great minds of former ages, it seems 
like sublime assurance to claim even a limited knowledge 
of Nature's Plan. But I shall furnish proof that there is 
not only a*design in our Creation, but also that Nature 
has been ever plainly trying to force it upon Man's at- 
tention. 

Asking you to bear in mind the propositions already 
stated, that " suffering is caused by our ignorance," and 
"where there is a wrong there is a remedy," I offer the 
thesis of a plan in our creation. 

The two predominant impelling forces in human nature 
are : 

First — The instinct to preserve individual life, T and 

Second — The instinct to perpetuate the species. 

Every physical sense and every faculty of the mind is 
under -subjection to this first instinct. The gratification 
of his desires, the exercise of his sympathies, the exten- 
sion of his moral perceptions, aid man in preserving his 
life. I have sought in vain to discover any proclivity, 
any function, any power, or any element whatever, pos- 
sessed by man, which does not primarily aid him to pre- 
serve individual life. 

The second instinct — to perpetuate the species — gener- 
ally subordinate to the first, is, in frequent instances, so 
strongly developed as to overpower the instinct of self- 
preservation. From the age of Trojan Helen and Paris ; 



from the time "of Cleopatra and Mark Antony; from the 
days of Tasso and Leonora, down to the. present day's 
police report, there is the same story of sacrifices made, of 
risks endured, and dangers encounted, to gratify the in- 
stinct by means of which life is perpetuated. 

Again, this instinct, as exhibited iri the deep love which • 
parents bear toward their offspring, often overmasters the 
instinct of self-preservation. Niobe is represented as 
receiving the arrows in her own bosom, rather than her 
children should suffer. Time and again fathers and mothers 
have heroically sacrificed themselves, standing between 
their precious little ones and certain death. 

Here, then is a demonstrated design in Nature — the 
preservation and perpetuation of the human species. And 
notwithstanding wars, famine, and pestilence ; despite the 
most threatening and devastating convulsions of the ele- 
ments; yes! despite his own cruelty, folly, and ignorance, 
man survives. 

Have we not, then, a logical right to infer that one of 
.the objects and purposes — a part, at least, of the plan of 
Nature — is, that the human species is preserved and per- 
petuated in order that it may remain for a still longer 
period under the operation of this law of universal 
progress or evol ution ? that in the future as in the past, 
man shall continue to progress toward an ever more per- 
fect mould of form and enlarged capacity of intellect ? 

From the same premises we may also draw this con- 
clusion : that the true definition of Sin is the commission 
of an act which interferes with or tends to thwart the 
preservation of individual life or the perpetuation of the 
species. If we commit such an act ignorahtly, the pain 
which inevitably follows is Nature's reminder that we are 
interfering with her plan. Let her have her own way, 
and even assist her in it, and her generosity is without 
limit. 

Sin, therefore, is the invarible prefix to pain, and pain 



9 

in almost every instance is the result of ignorance. How, 
then, shall we best acquire a knowledge of that which 
interferes with the plan of Nature, and rind remedies for 
the innumerable sufferings of mankind? 

There is, I contend, a sure method of acquiring such 
knowledge, and bv conforming to and aiding Nature's 
plan, we may immediately diminish and eventually extin- 
guish the crimes, the poverty, the diseases, in a word, 
the pains which afflict our race. This will appear rash 
doctrine, but we will see if it is not logically and in all 
reason, true. 

By closely observing the tendencies of the Present in the 

freest countries, by reviewing care/idly the history of the Past, 

we way arrive at some just conclusions concerning the Future. 

We may, in fact, be enabled to consciously further the design 

of Nature. 

Look at what has been accomplished by a similar 
method of observation and induction in predicting the 
weather I Sixty-five per cent of all the predictions of the 
United States Signal Bureau have been verified, and who 
can doubt that when the system is extended, and a suffi- 
cient number of exceptions or variations have been 
tabulated to ascertain the general rules which govern, or 
the plan which pervades the winds, tides and clouds, that 
rain or fair weather will be predicted with absolute accu- 
racy ? 

But it is utterly impossible for us to perceive the ten- 
dencies of the Present, so long as we have some precon- 
ceived or . favorite, but narrow theory as to what these 
tendencies should be. We should endeavor \o observe* 
without bias— we should first positively ascertain the facts 
and reason therefrom. 

The gross and dense stupidity of the average civilized 
man is betrayed by his folly in attempting to manage 
events, instead of learning and obeying the rules which 
he cannot change. He is not yet convinced that all his 



• 10 

petty fuming and fretting, his childish attachment to dead 
idols, does not prevent the world moving grandly on in 
obedience to established and harmonious laws. 

De Tocqueville said: "It is not necessary that God 
himself should speak in order to disclose to us the unques- 
tionable signs of His will. We can discern them in the 
habitual course of Nature, and in the invariable tendency 
of events." 

I am aware that in a country where a majority of aver- 
age civilized men hold sway, it is akin to treason to charge 
them with dense and gross stupidity ; but the truth of the 
accusation may be so easily and triumphantly maintained 
that I do not hesitate" to prefer it. A mere example will 
serve to substantiate the charge, and it is one that lately 
came within my own knowledge. 

A few years ago, in one of the seaport towns of a neigh- 
boring State, there died a pious and estimable old lady, 
who had been afflicted with a disease of a tumorous nature , 
for more than ten years. During all that time she was 
confined to the house, and for many years to her bed. 
She was watched over and cared for by a devoted brother 
and an only sister, who, throughout her long illness, ex- 
hibited rare patience and self-sacrfice. At the time 
of the poor creature's death the tumorous growth 
equaled in size her emaciated body. For months be- 
fore her last moment, she appeared to be in a dying 
condition, the helpless victim of the keenest tortures of 
disease. The process of decay having begun several 
days previous to her death, her agony was . indescriba- 
ble. The sister and brother of the lady were good and 
pious people, and members of an orthodox Christian 
church. The sister said to a friend, after these last 
dreadful days were over, that at one time they had al- 
most rebeled against God for the tortures He had permit- 
ted the poor departed to endure, but after praying three 
days she had become reconciled. In other words, she 



11 

accused God of permitting this terrible suffering, but after 
remaining in a highly exalted mental and nervous condi- 
tion for three days, although she could not thereby have 
obtained any new light upon the subject, she had annuled 
the indictment ! But mark what follows. Two eminent 
physicians asked the brother and sister to allow a post- 
mortem examination of the body, representing that the 
case was a very peculiar one, and that an investigation 
might result in valuable additions to scientific knowledge, 
and perhaps be the means of preventing great suffering in 
the treatment of similar cases. But this permission was 
not only decidedly, refused, but, fearful that an attempt 
might be made to disinter and dissect the body, precau- 
tion was taken to have it buried where it could be guarded 
night and day. In effect, these good and not uncom- 
monly superstitious people, persisted in blindly charging 
God with cruelty toward one individual, when they, 
themselves, were guilty of cruelty toward the whole 
human race. 

Do you wonder, after this illustration of average civil- 
ized intelligence, that mankind have been for centuries, 
and are likely to be for some time to come, victims of 
disease, subject to what are incorrectly called accidents, 
and wretched, lingering, horrible deaths? Is there not, 
in this" illustration, a hint of the transcendent benefits 
Vhich would follow the substitution of scientific knowl- 
edge for superstition? 

Let us now apply our method to the discovery of rem- 
edies for the wrongs which burden humanity : the terri- 
ble evils which have grown out of man's persistent and 
habitual commission of acts which interfere with Nature's 
plan. 

As alread indicated, the first remedy is the removal of 
ignorance; because ignorance, more. than anything and 
everything else, interferes with the preservation of indi- 
vidual life and the perpetuation of the species ; and it is 



12 

assuring to consider the* numerous tendencies revealed to 
us in the present wide-spread and thoughtful agitation of 
the subject of education. In all enlightened countries 
there is a large class who perceive the vital necessity of 
educating the masses, and who advocate the system of 
compulsory education. The system has been successfully 
practiced for many years in Prussia ; Great Britain is 
approaching it by her recent laws entitled the School 
Acts ; Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut 
have . begun it by legislation in relation to factory 
children, compelling parents to educate their children a 
certain number of hours each day ; and California and 
Illinois, and some other States, are reported as advancing 
toward it. 

In the United States it has been supposed that educa- 
tion is all but universal ; but this supposition is destroyed 
by figures contained in the last report of the National Com- 
missioners of Education (1871). The number of illiterates, 
or persons above the age of ten years who cannot write, 
throughout tjie Union, is given as 5,660,074. In New 
York State alone the number is 241,152, and in Pennsyl- 
vania, 222,356. Even in New England, which is looked 
upon as containing more liberal and cultivated inhabitants 
than any other part of the country, the number of illite- 
rates is not less than 195,963. 

It must be granted that a diminution of ignorance 
among the masses would be followed by a greatly improved 
sense of justice, and therefore by many wholesome and 
beneficial reforms, which in the present condition of pop- 
ular education are impracticable and visionary. But a 
simple diminution of illiteracy is not enough. I agree 
with many others, in saying that I have but little faith, 
that what is ordinarily spoken of as education, will ever be 
the means of accomplishing great and radical reforms. 
For education means something more than knowledge, 
whether culled from books or derived from observation 



13 

and reflection. I have found no definition of the word 
superior to Professor Huxley's. He says: " Education is 
the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under 
which name I include not merely things and their forces, 
but men and their doings ; and the fashioning of the affec- 
tions and ot the will into an earnest and loving desire to" 
move in harmony with those laws." And I shall vary the 
definition but slightly when I add thereto, that the best 
educated arj those who possess the most thoroughly in- 
structed and disciplined faculties under the control of the 
most enlightened will. 

Such an education should be made general and compul- 
sory. A recent writer has shown how this can be done, 
even under our republican form of government, without 
violation of its constitution. His plan, in brief, is, that all 
children who do not attend public schools shall be com- 
pelled to submit to periodical examinations in order to 
ascertain if they are being educated ; the parents to be re- 
sponsible for their instruction. This plan would do away 
with the perhaps Unconstitutional feature of enforced at- 
tendance of public schools ; although there can be no doubt 
that in the constitution of every truly republican forni of 
government, the right is inherent to prevent generations 
of children growing up uneducated, and, becoming per- 
haps, criminals. The same writer urges the wisdom of 
making the public schools so attractive as to induce the 
largest voluntary attendance. 

In speaking of education, I do not wish to be understood 
as referring only to the training of children. Many per- 
sons are incapable of receiving a true education until fully 
grown. And it is the fully grown persons upon whom 
devolves the training of the coming generation, who 
should be first educated. If I could be granted the abso- 
lute control of one hundred Anglo-Saxon children during 
the period between the age of four and eighteen, I would 
guarantee that at the age of thirty, seventy-five of them 



14 - . 

would be frog-worshippers, and fifty of these would perse- 
cute any one who did not share their religious conviction. 
I say Anglo-Saxon children ; in the matter of persecutions, 
I would promise to do still better with children of the 
Latin race. 

We may now inquire what is the best method of educa- 
tion ; or by what means our intellects may be most thor- 
oughly instructed " in the laws of Nature, and our affec- 
tions and will fashioned to move in harmony .with tlTose 
laws." This question cannot be fully answered within the 
limits of a single address, but I may state some of the 
essential principles which must, in my opinion, be accepted 
before a real education can be acquired. 

The laws of Nature cannot be learned without the adop- 
tion of the principle embodied in the maxim of Descartes, 
already quoted : " Give unqualified assent to no proposi- 
tions but those the truth of which is so clear and dis- 
tinct that they cannot be doubted." With this rule as a 
guide, we need not fear whether it directs us to "what is 
termed Idealism, or Materialism ; or whether it leads us 
to the complete abolition of much of the artificial twaddle 
known as metaphysics, by. means of which the falsest 
beliefs are nourished and sustained. It will certainly con- 
vey us closer to truth than any other rule. Stricly ad- 
hering to it, we at first conclude that the world of attaina- 
ble knowledge is exceedingly limited, because there seems 
to be a distinct realm bej T ond us belonging to the Un- 
knowable. Why, for instance, Nature produces perfec- 
tion by growth or evolution, instead of making everything 
perfect at once, is, in the present stage of man's develop- 
ment, simply unanswerable and unknowable — and conse- 
quently much valuable time is saved which might other- 
wise be devoted to useless speculation. But who can 
say that such knowledge is not within the reach of the 
future perfectly developed man? Remembering the fact 
of its own germinal origin, the mind assents to the proba- 



15 

bility that there is no end to mankind's attainment of 
knowledge. • 

Education would be promoted by the use as a text 
book, in every advanced school, of a work not entirely 
unlike one entitled : "A Treatise on Facts," by the distin- 
guished law writer, James Ram. The mind cannot be 
sufficiently disciplined in the strictest method of ascer- 
taining facts, for it is very evident that without accurate 
perception of facts, there can be no just reflection, or, in- 
deed, proper action. As preliminary to their apprehension* 
it is necessary that we should not be influenced by any- 
thing we may know or imagine of the source -whence 
facts may come, for nothing impairs our ability to perceive 
facts so much as undue veneration. The utterances of 
tradition and histor} 7 , the words of reputed wise men and 
philosophers, the assertions of powerful, titled, or wealthy 
personages, should all be subjected to the same thorough 
and impartial test. In this way only can the mind be 
cleared of the rubbish of fabulous cosmogonies and bar- 
barous theologies, and prepared for the reception of truth 
and justice. Better, by far, become a Gradgrind than an 
emotionalist. But it is not necessary to become either the 
one or the other. Who was more scientifically exact than 
Goethe ? And yet he is the author of as purely sympa- 
thetic poems as can be found in any language. Because 
we may take pleasure in studying the puzzles of Euclid, 
are we thereby disqualified from loving and wondering 
over the peepTng Avhite violet or trailing arbutus of early 
Spring ? Shall a taste for the study of paleontology unfit 
us for the enjoyment of KaulbaclTs pictures, or the music 
of Beethoven ? 

Some of the most scholastic and learned of men have 
been incredibly deficient in the power to determine facts. 
Of what value, upon any subject involving precise appre- 
ciation of facts, is the opinion of the man who believes 
that a person named Al*ethusaleh lived rfine hundred and 



16 

sixty odd years ; or that the Almighty Ruler of the Uni- 
verse authorized one Moses to slaughter thousands of in- 
nocent and captive Midianite women and children ; or 
that at the instance of a Hebrew peasant, however good 
and noble, or. any other mere man, the operation of any 
law of Nature was ever, for a moment, suspended? In 
short, of how much scientific value are the opinions of 
those who regard credulity as a virtue, and who are una- 
ware that through Doubt came all positive knowledge? 
Through the medium of facts the mind perceives *that 
there is very little authentic history, and that theolog}' and 
sophistry are synonymous terms. 

By adopting the strictest method of reasoning we arrive 
at the conclusion that Science only can solve the many 
problems which surround and mystify us. To it must we 
address ourselves when we ask ; "Is the mind immortal? 
"What are the attributes of the Infinite Power which we 
call God?" 

What, for instance, can inspire a firmer hope in the 
future existence, of the mind, than the scientific fact — but 
lately established — that Force is indestructible ? 

Would I, then, have the moral and religious training 
of the intellect neglected ? By no means. There should 
be used in every school, a text book, such as suggested by 
several writers, consisting of a compilation of extracts 
from the teachings of Christ, Confucius, Buddha, Plato, 
and all the great moralists of both ancient and modern 
times. But above all, this should be taught — this old 
morality — as ancient as the earliest dawn of human sym- 
pathy : " As you would that others should do unto you, 
do you even so unto them." This is morality, the actual 
practice or positive ignoring of^ which cannot be evaded, 
for it calls for adoption or rejection in the affairs of every- 
day life : and without it, prayers, creeds, sacraments, altars, 
mosques, s}magogaes, and cathedrals are the mere acces- 
sories of inconsistent flummery ! 



17 

• 

But we must go to Nature for religions teaching. It , 
•lias been said that " Copernicus gave to the human mind 
a new heavens, Columbus a new earth" — but it was Lu- 
ther who gave the human mind liberty to study the new 
heavens and the new earth. ! Protestantism ! beloved 
mother of 'free thought! How much greater than its abil- 
ity to comprehend is mankind's indebtedness to thee ! How 
much grander than the new heavens and the new earth is 
the boundless universe of liberated mind ! 

Any system of public instruction would be incomplete 
unless it included the criminal class, and the tendencies 
of the present age in relation to the subject of Prison Re- 
form are among the happiest auguries of the future. This 
subject is engaging the most liberal and philanthropic 
minds of Europe and America. The public at large is be- 
ginning for the first time in human history to sympathize 
with criminals, as a class. It begins to notice that there is 
no uniformity in the system of justice now administered in 
our courts, and that society is not improved by a vindic- 
tive punishment of criminals. It perceives, in faot, the 
necessity of reforming them. 

Above a certain grade of offences criminals should not 
be sentenced to any fi.xed term of imprisonment. They 
should be sentenced to confinement until truly educated 
and reformed. The Prussian prison system, which aims 
so to educate and reform, appears to be the most enlight- 
ened, has been the most 'successful, and should be every- 
where introduced. 

Capital punishment should be, and doubtless soon will 
be, abolished in all the civilized' countries of the globe. 
At the beginning of this century, hanging in Europe was 
considered the only adequate punishment for offenses now 
classed under the head of petty larceny. Since that time 
it has been abolished in several countries, and it is retained 
in others only as the. punishment for the highest offenses 
known to the law. That one of the tendencies of this age 



. 18 

is to do away with it entirely, any one, with ordinary pow- 
ers of observation, may readily learn. Certainly, the time 
ought long since to have gone by, when men, whose of- 
fense consists in upholding political views from which the 
majority dissent, can be led forth by files of indifferent 
soldiers and brutally shot. 

Enforced education, whic% shall eventually endow the 
average civilized man (which epithet properly includes 
legislators who permit the existence of statutes repugnant 
to common sense) with the same ideas of truth and jus- 
tice possessed now only by the educated few, should then, 
be the basis of, and precede all other, great 'and radical 
reforms. 

The sequence of compulsory education, and ' an im- 
proved sense of justice, will be the conferring upon wo- 
man of those rights • and privileges which are at present 
generally considered the sole prerogative of the male sex. 
The history of civilization shows a gradual advance from 
the brute power over woman .displayed by man in his sav- 
age condition, to a concession of the privileges which she 
now enjoys. But civilization is still going forward, and 
the inclination to bestow upon woman all her natural 
rights is one of the sure tendencies of our times. This is 
evinced in the legislation of many of the United States, 
giving her the right to hold and transfer real estate in her 
own name, and independent of her husband's control, be- 
sides yielding her several other legal privileges, whicl*not 
many years ago would have been considered destructive 
of human society. 

The idea that woman is unsexed unless she is treated 
and acts as nearly as possible like an animated wax-doll, 
is not so widely prevalent as it formerly was. She is, 
however, still enduring wrongs at the will of her physical 
superiors, and some of the commonest legal rights are 
withheld from her, both in America and Europe. She is 
taxed without representation ; the right of suffrage is al- 



19 

most universally withheld from her. As a human being, 
who in one stage of hei einbryological development is un- 
distinguishable from the male, she is his moral equal, and 
has a natural right to an independent voice in shaping the 
government under which she lives. And if only one 
woman in these United States desires to vote, she has a 
natural right to do so, and no other woman, and no man, 
nor all the other women, nor all the other men, can justly 
prevent her exercise of such a right. The croakers who 
would not concede the natural right of our Southern slaves 
to freedom, t>ut predicted all sorts of disasters as sure to 
follow the abolition of their favorite institution, are now 
dismally croaking over the evil results which will inevita- 
bly follow the emancipation of woman. But the plan of 
Nature will be worked out, despite the croakings of these 
hoarse-throated individuals, and I believe there are persons 
now living who will witness woman's enfranchisement in 
most, if not all, the States of the American Union. 

"Whatever increases the interest of woman in the affairs 
of civil government not only enlarges her brain capacity, 
but it also advances the science of civil government, and 
the exercise of the right to vote would undoubtedly in- 
crease that interest. If female children were instructed as 
soon as they- were able to comprehend it, that, as well as 
the boys, they should, at a certain age have a voice in all 
matters affecting the government of the nation, would they 
not immediately become interested in new studies, and 
cease to be so deeply absorbed in the study of dress, of 
fashion, and the conventional frivolities of the day, than 
which nothing seems so detrimental to the mental *and 
physical development of woman ? 

The deep problem of how best to extirpate the giant 
evil of intemperance awaits for its solution the arrival of 
woman, with her keener aversion to physical and moral 
degradation, to political power. More than all, woman's 
enfranchisement will prepare for her the vast change in 



20 * 

the laws governing civil marriage, which must logically 
and necessarily come, and which her voice wiU powerfully 
promote. . 

But I need not dwell upon other reasons why woman 
should enjoy equal political rights, for I could not expect 
to add many arguments to the numerous and persuasive 
ones put forth by the earnest and able advocates of her 
cause. It is sufficient to call attention again to the plan 
of Nature, and point out how greatly improvement in 
civil government, in the mental and physical condition of 
woman, in the advancement of temperance, and the innu- 
merable other good consequences which always result from 
remedying a wrong, would affect the preservation of indi- 
vidual life and the perpetuation of the species. We may, 
then, clearly see that it is our duty to give conscious assist- 
ance to the plan of Nature, by graciously according to 
woman the enjoyment, of all her natural rights. 

We come now to the consideration of a moss momen- 
tous tendency of this age, which is thrust upon our no- 
tice by the organized, wi^le, and ever increasing agitation 
concerning the antagonistic* claims of the capitalist and 
the working man. Time will permit me to give you 
but a brief and imperfect abstract of my views On this 
question. 

It cannot be denied that a vast proportion of the most 
intense sufferings of humanity, and nearly all the crimes, 
are the result of that which most directly interferes with 
the preservation of individual life and the perpetuation of 
the species, namely: poverty, or the unequal and unjust 
distribution of natural wealth. And by natural wealth,^ 
mean land and its immediate productions — vegetable, ani- 
mal, and mineral — and my definition excludes articles 
manufactured therefrom. 

.That the tendencies of the age are irrepressibly toward 
reform in this matter, is visible to every correct observer 
and receptive thinker. Says John Stuart Mill : " The 



21 - • 

most remarkable consequences of advancing civilization, 
which the state of the world is now forcing upon the at- 
tention of thinking minds, is this — that power passes 
more and more from individuals and small knots of indi- 
viduals to masses; that the importance of the masses be- 
comes constantly greater, that of individuals less," Again, 
he says : "Irt the beginning of society the power of the 
masses does not exist, because property and intelligence 
have no existence beyond a very small portion of the com- 
munity." Yet the average civilized man fails to see that 
we have passed the beginning of society, and that an ever 
growing sense of justice exclaims loudly against a mo-, 
nopoly of either property or intelligence. And the his- 
tory of civilization affords proof that the possession of 
property is essential to the growth of intelligence. Sir 
John Lubbock informs us that the Australians, when first 
visited by Europeans, were lower in the scale of civiliza- 
tion than any other known race, having no religious forms 
or ceremonies, and no ideas relative to the existence of a 
Deity. And the reason therefor was that they had no 
knowledge of the cultivation of any cereals, and possessed 
no animals capable of domestication — their life was a 
daily struggle for 'the means of subsistence. Science and 
art are to-day most fully cultivated, and civilization -far- 
thest developed, among nations which afford the greatest 
number of individuals who are beyond the mind-absorb- 
ing cares of want. 

The evidences, direct and indirect, of a tendency 
toward the more equal distribution of wealth, not by 
cutting it into slices, but by means of co-operation, 
are numerous and convincing. We notice upon all 
sides the growth of crime, and of both individual and 
organized corruption ; w r e perceive that wealth is 
power, no matter how acquired ; that those who suc- 
ceed in stealing millions are practically exempt from 
punishment, though the starving man, who steals a 



22 



loaf of bread, is treated* with the severest injustice. 
The recent gigantic "Ring Frauds" in the city of New 
York arouse us to the discussion of these .questions : 
Should the mere possession of wealth confer special and 
peculiar privileges upon any man or class of men ? Shall 
the honest man work in filthy ditches twelve hours a day 
for the means of bare subsistence, and see the sons of sor- 
did thieves roll by in idle luxury ? In our large cities the 
public sense of honor is so far diluted with admiration for 
what is termed " smartness," as to praise by faint denunci- 
ation those who steal large sums, and to denounce by faint 
praise those who have the opportunity of safely doing so, 
and are restrained by moral 'and religious principle. The 
effect is, practically, to make servants and slaves of those 
who remain strictly and unyieldingly honest, who will not 
for money, which means power, and often life itself, endure 
the soul-shudderings gf those who, for the sake of hoarding 
it, stoop to the meanest, the most degrading, the most das- 
tardly of acts. Said Alexander Hamilton : " Give a man 
power over my subsistence, and he has a right over my 
whole moral being." 

For the excessive miseries suffered by mankind, owing 
to the unequal and unjust distribution of natural wealth, 
there must be found adequate means of relief. 

That there is a revolution in progress grander in its 
proportions and more universal in its extent than any the 
world has ever witnessed, is visible to all except the will- 
fully blind. 

There are two parties — one an ever-expanding minority, 
the other an# ever-contracting majority. Between these 
parties there is a conflict of opinion, induced by different 
ideas'of justice, and this conflict is insuppressible. 

The majority say that nothing is so monstrously unjust 
as to take away property from those who possess the legal 
title. 

The minority say that nothing is so monstrously unjust 



23 

as to permit any one individual to acquire, either honora- 
bly or by fraud, force, superior craft, or inheritance, prop- 
erty which would support the lives of thousands, while 
thousands are starving ; that all must work, and all shall 
be provided with the means of subsistence. 

The majority pertly and thoughtlessly affirm that the 
present state of affairs has always existed and always will, 
and remedies therefor are purely Utopian. 

The minority point to history, and show a constant 
dispersion of wealth from individuals to masses. They 
claim that only in our day was it possible for poor men in 
one short life to accumulate fortunes so large as those of 
Astor and Stewart. They declare that co-operation and 
civilization are substantially identical, and that civiliza- 
tion and co-operation are kresjstibly advancing. 

The minority also declare that the majority regard 
everything as impracticable which is not sure to happen 
in their lifetimes, and everything Utopian which cannot 
occur until sometime after their deaths, and that their sa- 
gacious and profound affirmations that wealth cannot be 
distributed through co-operation, have no weight, in view 
of What real education does for me individual, and what 
it may accomplish when generally diffused. 

It should be remembered that natural # wealth is con- 
fined to the possession of a few, -who are so enormously 
outnumbered by the poor, that the latter may, with per- 
fect ease, and without violence or tumult, enforce a just 
distribution whenever they have acquired sufficient intel- 
ligence to devise and agree upon the fairest and best meas- 
ures of divison. Moreover, statisticians assert that the 
rich are growing richer, and the poor poorer— a wrong for 
which final and natural provision must be made. Only 
by furthering the plan of Nature can we avoid the blood- 
shed and pain which will follow the attempts at reform 
made by the impatient, impracticable, and long-suffering 
victims of poverty. The old argument that if wealth 



u 

were equally distributed, it would soon find its way intd 
the hands of its former possessors, is witty and epigram- 
matic, but is absurd and unworthy of contradiction, con- 
sidering the successful working, in various communities, 
of the principles of co-operation. 

The Parisian Communists, although right in theory, 
were led by men too ignorant to comprehend that the 
objects fought for should be preceded by general educa- 
tion, by conceding justice to women, and that they can 
only be accomplished by peaceful and wise legislation. 
Besides, it is not France, with its hordes of priest-ridden 
illiterates, savage theorists, and semi-barbarous soldiers, 
but the United States of America, with their co-operative 
system of government, with their hosts of ofnniveious read- 
ers, -independent thinkers' peaceable and practical work- 
ers, which lead the world in experiment and reform. 

It is often 'remarked that in our country.a man who is 
willing to work can always earn a good living. Even if 
this be strictly true, which I deny, the cpiestion of distrib- 
uting natural wealth is not one o.f expediency, but one of 
justice. What more dlmraon argument was employed by 
the supporters of slavery in the Southern States, than that 
the slaves* were better off' as they were, and that giving 
them freedom* would be productive of anarchy. No ! it is 
not France nor Europe, with a population of half-starved 
and ignorant workingmen, whose necessities compel them 
to sell themselves for promises of work and offers of food 
— but it is in free and well-provided America, where the 
working men " know their rights, and knowing dare main- 
tain," that the first successful attempt at general co-opera- 
tion will be made. 

It is doubtful if the human race can ever enter upon a 
higher plane of civilization until this distribution takes 
place. There is certainly no worse use the human brain 
can be put to than in devising schemes for the hoarding 
of money. The natural fights of men to the land and 



25 

sea, and their* products, are precisely equal, and a just 
system of co-operation would compel every able-bodied 
person to become in some measure a producer ; at the same 
time the accumulation of natural wealth for the benefit of 
one individual would be prohibited and treated as a 
crime, at least equal in degree to that of larceny. The 
^distribution of%atnral wealth would therefore prove to 
be the distribution of labor. No one would be exempt 
from his or her proportional share of it, which, compared 
with what is now required of the day laborer, struggling fbr 
existence, would oe limited indeed. Every man and wo- 
man might have ample leisure and opportunity to pursue 
in any direction the bent or their individual tastes and 
favorite studies, and thereby confer blessings upon the 
whole community. There might even then be an aristoc- 
racy, but it would be the afistoeracy of manhood and wo- 
manhood, an 1 not based upon the ownership of inartistic 
baubles. Trie struggle then would oe- not for existence, 
bat far :nce. We should then be spared the com- 

mon setaele furnished by men who 

r\es m acquiring fortunes, and 
*\ ,1 business," riot to study any branch 

of science, art ov literature, or to engage in any work of 
philanthropy, whereby the condition of their less fortu- 
nate fellow-creatures might be improved: 0! No! their 
so-called business habits have interfered with the acquisi- 
tion of a taste for study ; and as for philanthropy, the 
same habits have also retarded its development, and we 
hear from them only regrets that they ever retired from 
the pursuit of business. What thrilling and ennobling 
ideas of life such men possess ! 

Another excellent result of distribution would be, that 
woman, being rendered independent of man for the means 
of subsistence, would be as untrammeled as he is, in the 
exercise of political rights. * 

But it is impossible to conceive the multiplicity ot 



26 

effects which would follow a conscious assistance of the 
natural tendencies to ameliorate the condition ol the hu- 
man species. 

What now must logically follow the reforms of which 
I have merely traced the outlines? General education, 
the emancipation of woman, the distribution of wealth, 
must, in my judgment, be followed by^he abolition of 
civil marriage, or the removal of the present unjust legal 
restraints upon the affections; and this will ultimately re- 
sult in the extinguishment of hereditary disease. 

And here let me pause to say---and I wish it to be dis- 
tinctly understood that I do not advocate the abolition of 
rival marriage — I only say that according to the princi- 
ples I have laid down, its abolition is inevitable. But 
you may rest assured that a change involving such im- 
portant results as the placing of the marriage contract 
upon 4 footing with other civil contracts, will not be pre- 
cipitated. Neither you, ' nor I, nor the human race,* are 
prepared for such a change. Doubtless a conviction in 
the general mind that such a change must certainly come, 
will result in a conscious promotion of it ; but as Ltried to 
impress upon you in the first part of this discourse, time 
is an element which must enter largely into all calculations 
of future reform. The present time is of consequence to 
us because it marks the duration of our lives, l#it compared 
with the past or probable future time, it is infinitessimal. 
It must be remembered that the conservative element in 
human nature always predominates over the radical, and 
that " prejudice is the friction which prevents the too 
swift and dangerous revolution of the wheels of progress." 
We' need not fear social chaos. That is against the laws 
of Nature, and there is no instance of it in history, though 
there have been instances — such as the first French Eevo- 
lution — of the government of society by desperate but 
homogeneous ignorance. 

The tendency of modern legislation is undoubtedly to- 



27 

ward facilitating divorces, toward an equitable construc- 
tion of the marriage contract, and in favor of a modifica- 
tion of the traditional guardianship of man over woman. 
The laws of some of the United States are of the most 
liberal description in these respects. A law recently in- 
troduced into the English Parliament regulating and mod- 
erating the punishment for bigamy is one of tire signifi- 
cant signs of the times. The abolition of- all marriage 
laws is openly advocated in various portions of this coun- 
try, and independent thinkers confess that toward this re- 
form civilization is plainly advancing. For any healthy 
male or female to remain in a state of celibacy is a wrong, 
because it interferes, according to statistics, as well with 
the preservation of individual life, as with the perpetua- 
tion of the species. It is also a wrong to compel two per- 
sons who discover, after marriage, that they are entirely 
■uncongenial, unadapted to each other, and altogether mis- 
mated, to remain forever wretched, because they were not 
wise enough to foresee their wretchedness, and avoid the 
marriage. For these wrongs, and for the ever-growing 
and life-destroying shame of lewdness, and the enormous- 
ly-increasing crime of infanticide, the products both of un- 
natural marriage laws, there must exist specific remedies. 
The reforms already discussed should precede the abo- 
lition of civil marriage. How can there be intelligent 
and free selectipn of wives and husbands until education 
is general, and 1^e laws of hereditary descent, especially, 
better understood ; until the unjust exclusion of woman 
from politcal rigkts is obsolete ; and until wealth is dis- 
tributed in such a fair manner, that in choosing a mate 
there can be no prejudice founded on. adventitious merits? 
In all countries where marriage laws have been liberal, 
and wealth retained in the hands of a few, the result has 
been polygamy — a barbarous purchase of wives by the 
few males who possessed the wealth ; and wherever this 
practice has prevailed men and woman have become de- 
graded. 



28 

Darwin claims that monogamous marriage arose from 
the jealousy of the male. The same great naturalist and 
philosopher shows that«mong nearly all animals the fe- 
male-selects, and that is undoubtedly what must be de- 
nominated the natural method. He aiso directs atten- 
tion to the remarkable circumstance, that while man takes 
such pains to improve his breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, 
and poultry, he does not apply the same principles to the 
improvement and development of the human race, 

I will first answer a primaiy objection to thje abolition 
of civil marriage, and then discuss one of the results 
which must rationally follow its abolition. It is said that 
if a husband for any reason happened to grow tired of his 
wife, and were not restrained by the law of marriage, he 
would desert her and their children. Supposing this, for 
the sake of argument, to be true — so far as the support 
of the wife or children were concerned, under a wiseand 
just system of distributed wealth, the desertion would 
make no difference. It is doubtful if parents are the 
proper educators of their own children above a certain 
age ; indeed, there is no question that ranch of the suffer- 
ing in this world is indirectly caused by vain, partial, un- 
just, and indulgent parents. The success which has at- 
tended the instruction of children of the tenderest years 
in the Social -Palace at Guise, in France, shows the wis- 
dom of other teaching besides that of parents. 

But I deny %at the male would be «iore apt to desert 
the female than she him. Selection would be chiefly ex- 
ercised by woman herself, and this perfect freedom of 
choice would, I believe, render marriages happier than 
any now known, and equally as permanent. Those who 
know how closely children bind the parents together, and 
who will make allowance for the moral restraint imposed 
by an education as denned by Prof. Huxle}^ can conceive 
new reasons why these marriages would be apt to be per- 
manent. 



29 

Another objection regarding increase of population 
made against the abolition of civil marriage I shall not 
here discuss. When education is diffused, woman eman- 
cipated, wealth divided, and all the able-bodied become 
producers, the question of regulating the propagation of 
our kind will be taken from the domain of political econ- 
omy, and assigned a place where it properly belongs — 
among the problems of physical science. Let the follow- 
ers of Malthus, or those who will not believe there is any 
design in our creation, nor that there is to be any further 
growth of knowledge, puzzle their brains about the exact 
number of people the globe can support : until it is found 
necessary to prepare for inhabitation the immense waste 
places of the earth by means of artesian wells, forest cul- 
ture, or some better mode, the objection is not a^ffractical 
one — although, Solon, Plato, and Aristotle, in their time, 
thought it was. 

Having replied to the most common objections of the 
average civilized man against any disturbance. of existing 
marriage 'laws, I proceed to show the crowning benefits to 
humanity, which would be derived from the universal 
practice of the free and natural selection of husbands and 
wives. 

.We find that mankind are now, and for ages past have 
been, suffering from innumerable constitutional or organic 
diseases which have been inherited from some immediate 
or remote ancestor. 

Have any remedies for these diseases ever been discov- 
ered ? There has been, in the opinion of those best qual- 
ified to judge, but limited progress made in medical sci- 
ence since the age of Aristotle. To-day, after centuries 
of investigation and experiment, the medical faculty have 
not found one single specific for any disease. Many of 
the most learned physicians have declared that there is no 
such thing as a specific in medicine. A few except qui- 
nine and mercury. While little progress has been made in. 



30 

medical science, strictly so called, there have been vast 
strides made in the discovery of sanitary and surgical 
measures- to prevent and alleviate disease and pain, and 
extensive knowledge acquired of anatomy and the laws of 
health. But still, dreadful scrofula, malignant cancer, 
frightful insanity, and hideous leprosy, besides unnum- 
bered other inherited diseases, continue to afflict and tor- 
ture poor short-sighted humanity, and the apothecary's 
drugs are powerless to remove them. 

Microscopists give us some right to believe that- the 
origin of all diseases, except those caused by local injury 
or functional derangement, may eventually be traced to 
the existence in the blood or bodily tissues of minute and 
poisonous parasites. It has been positively ascertained 
that some diseases -do so originate. ' The commissioners ap- 
pointed by the French Government, a few years ago, to 
investigate the cause of the wide-spread and fatal disease 
among the silk-worms in Southern France, discovered by 
microscopic aid, that the disease was caused by the pres- 
ence of parasites, and this disease was both epidemic and 
inheritable. It was finally cured by separating the bodies 
of those infested from those free from the parasites, and 
by destroying the infested — a simple and natural remedy. 

A similar remedy will help to annihilate man's most 
inveterate and destructive foe — the monster Disease. Al- 
low perfectly free selection among educated sexes, and be- 
fore many generations the long catalogue of human woes 
will be diminished, the more perfect will select the more 
perfect — the unfit will die, " the fittest will survive," and 
the final result of a knowledge of Nature's plan, and a 
conscious furtherance of it will be — a perfect mind in a 
perfect body, which is the true Millennium : 
"O! yet we trust that somehow good 
* Will be the final goal of ill, 
To pangs of nature, sins of will, 

Defects of doubt and taints of blood." 

/ 



* 31 

Of course the most of those present will reject my 
views, because they are measurably distasteful even to 
such liberal men as I know compose the body of my list- 
eners. But I have made no rhetorical appeal to your feel- 
ings, such as the topics discussed would certainly admit 
of; my arguments must stand by the force of reason, or 
not at all. Neither shall I anticipate and answer any per- 
sonal charge of demagoguism, of being theoretical or im- 
practicable. To the average civilized man, whose thoughts 
have no weight except from the ball and chain of preju- 
dice attached to them, every project, new to him, is im- 
practicable. There are many people who have long held 
views similar to my own, and who will regard as com- 
monplace, ideas which others will look upon as sensational. 
The broad general principles I have laid down the world 
will come -up to, though I may not live to see it. I am 
quite aware that it takes time and persistent effort to 
overcome the crude and sheep-like convictions of the 
multitude. The spirit of intolerance that condemned 
Socrates to death for preaching unpopular truth, •which 
denounced and persecuted Galileo for the same offense, is 
still alive ! Let the blood of the recently murdered 
French Communists, and the massacred students of Ha- 
vana, bear witness ! 

I expect and welcome my share of personal defamation 
and abuse. Still, the world will continue to move forward 
and though I have laid stress upon the time require to 
perfect great reforms, still I remember that one cause some- 
times produces a vast' multiplicity of effects, and I am 
exceedingly hopeful of the immediate results that will fol- 
low enforced and general education. 

You all know me as an orderly citizen. Some of you 
know that I served in the field throughout the late war 
to maintain order in the government under which we live. 
I will add for your information, if you do not happen to 
be apprised of it, that I am not only legally, but happily • 



married, and that I work as hard for my subsistence as 
men of my profession gf^erally do. I also desire to say 
that I am no office-seeker, and sli!*ll never seek nor accept 
the politcal influence of the workingmen. I have lived 
long enough in the largest cities of Europe and America 
to be deeply and sorrowfully impressed with the vastness 
of human suffering, and I can give no other or better rea- 
son for taking the unpopular, firm, and perhaps dogmatic, 
stand I do, than that Luther gave for his opposition to 
Eomanism — "I cannot otherwise/' 

I believe ' uvilil ' I gdod 

. 

of future generations; I I rings of man- 

kind are 

be"pi\ a knowledge of the truth: i i 

believe truth can be dis ring to this golden 

rule of science — Give unqualified assent to no propositions 
but those the truth of which is so clear and distinct that they 
cannot be doubted. 



? $A&^ 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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This pamphlet has been noticed, favorably and unfavor- 
ably, by the press in most of the United States, including 
the New York Worlds Chicago Tim<>s. New York Daily 
Witness and The Index* It lias been re-published in 
England. The author lias received hundreds of letters, 
many from leading thinkers, endorsing generally the views 
herein expressed. Nearly all of the newspaper criticisms 
have been written by persons who were evidently unaware 
that evolution is a natural law and not a doctrine, and 
accordingly many of their opinions are valueless. 



From the Bingkamton Times July 2-Sth, 1872. 

We are in favor of aggressive reform, and the point of our attack 
is the dense stupidity 'of the average civilized man. 

Everyone who acquires even a little real knowledge, is humbled by 
his own ignorance— at the same time he is shocked by the gross prej- 
udice and fatuity of those who refuse to acquire any. 



THE BINGHAMTON TIMES, 

(DAILY AND WICFKLV, 

An Original and Independent Journal, 

DE VOTED TO 

LITERATURE, ART, SCIENCE, POLITICS, SOCIETY AND 

REFORM. 

It has the largest daily circulation of any paper published in 

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EDITOR. 







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